Ticket offices in Scotland – update

24 February 2022

Rail passengers in Scotland have had their say on ScotRail proposals to change various ticket office hours – and ScotRail has now published its response.

During the 21-day consultation more than 1500 people got in touch with Transport Focus to share their views. Overall they reinforced evidence from our existing passenger research, that people value a visible staff presence at stations. We welcome ScotRail’s commitment to review the functionality of ticket machines, as some people don’t find them user friendly.

We note ScotRail’s view that removing staff from a ticket office to carry out front-line duties on the network will not impact passenger assistance with boarding and leaving trains. We further welcome ScotRail’s commitment to extending the staffing hours at stations during periods where numbers of booked assistance are high.

However we encourage ScotRail to review (after 12 months) the introduction of the Travel Safe Team initiative to evaluate whether the objective of making the rail network a safer place for everyone is being achieved. We also welcome the pause in closure of Cartsdyke, Clydebank and Woodhall ticket offices.

You can read our submission and the response here: https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/publication/scotrail-ticket-office-consultation/